A nasty, painful-looking purple wound disfigures his lower lip while numerous bruises mark the face of the Welsh centre whose stirring running display did so much to take Wales so close to beating the All Blacks for the first time in more than half-a-century on Sunday.

Taylor deservedly wears the scars of battle with pride and delights in the honour earned by Wales from one of their best performances in recent times -even if they were eclipsed 53-37 in the end by a New Zealand side given the fright of its World Cup life.

But he is also worried that Wales have given the game away by alerting England to the size of the task they will face at the Suncorp stadium next Sunday.

Where just days ago their always-likely quarter-final appeared no more than a formality for Clive Woodward's men, now there is a genuine edge -and already Woodward has spoken of a `fear factor' back in his camp.

"We have probably done England a favour," admitted Taylor.

"The way we played against New Zealand will have focused their minds back on the task.

"For us, we see it as another step up because England are the favourites for the World Cup. We just have to dig deeper and put in another performance like that.

"Yes, we restored a bit of pride in the Welsh nation, and it has also restored a lot of confidence. But we didn't win against New Zealand, so we're not getting carried away."

Trust an accountant such as Taylor to deal in harsh statistics rather than all the emotion which has been coursing through the Welsh camp since Sunday's thrilling performance.

Wins and losses are all that matter to the Llanelli Scarlets star, although he has also gauged the benefits of taking the All Blacks apart for the best part of an hour.

"The next time we are in touch with one of the best sides in the world with 10 minutes to go, maybe it will help us to do the right thing and win the game," said Taylor.

"A side more clinical than us would have been able to do something to put them away. But we now know we are capable of living with sides like that. There's no reason for us to doubt ourselves.

"We've shown flashes in the last year. We ran England close in the Six Nations and played well against Ireland. We've known the performance was there. The key was just getting some consistency in our results."

At last it has arrived - five wins on the trot coming before the heroic defeat against New Zealand.

But do not run away with the idea that just because Wales have reached the quarter-final spot which most Nov 4, 2003people anticipated was as far as they would go at this tournament the heat is now off.

"It's Wales-England," said Taylor.

"I don't think in any Welshman's heart that any pressure has been lifted at all by the match against New Zealand. There is no bigger game than England. It's just that now we have restored some self-belief."

Whether that will be enough to dent the progress of the most formidable pack in world rugby led by the monumental Martin Johnson, behind which are backs with genuine power and pace, is doubtful.

England's defence is the meanest at this tournament, having conceded just two tries. It is highly unlikely that Woodward's men would allow to develop the sort of random-running confrontation which categorised the Wales-New Zealand encounter.

That fact is conceded by Taylor too.

"Open games suit our style of play," he said.

"But England are a bit more structured than New Zealand, even though both when they sense the try line know how to get there.

"It's a good feeling having been part of a fantastic game of rugby against one of the best sides in the world, but we all know we've got to dig deep in training and the game itself to get a performance which exceeds the last one. Even so the only outcome we are considering is a win."